The invention relates to a microstructure apparatus for heating and atomizing a fluid, comprising an inner tube surrounded by an outer tube and a microstructure formed at the interface between the inner and the outer tubes.
Microstructure apparatus for heating fluids are used particularly for a position-independent condensation-free evaporation of liquids and for continuous flow heating particularly of gases. Preferred areas of utilization are chemical or pharmaceutical processes and generally the chemical engineering field.
It is generally known to heat fluids by way of electric heating elements. This has the advantage that the heat transfer can be controlled rapidly and in a simple manner by controlling the electric power input. In this connection, microstructure apparatus have, the advantage that, because of the principally smaller dimensions, the heat transfer paths are short and a large specific heat transfer surface can be provided such that the volume-based heat transfer can be relatively high.
DE 199 17 521 A1 discloses such a microstructure apparatus including direct and indirect electrical resistance heaters for heating fluids. The microstructure apparatus comprises layers including microwave channels for the passage of a fluid to be heated and layers including electrical heaters. In comparison with a conventional heat exchanger which is not microstructured, a volume-specific increase of the heat transfer of at least the factor 100 is mentioned. The proposed inner structured apparatus however requires several heating elements with dimensions in the micro-range. For designing the microstructure apparatus for larger fluid flows a number of such heating elements are required and that number increases with the flow volume for added capacity. This is necessary particularly if the volume-specific heat transfer capacity of the microstructure apparatus must not be reduced.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a microstructure apparatus for heating and atomizing fluids which has heating elements that are simple in their design and which, furthermore, provides for an extremely fine atomization of the fluid via the microstructure apparatus.